As a San Diego hophead I recognize that Alpine Beer Co. makes some of the best IPA’s in the world. Despite how infrequently Alpine’s beers show up at local bars and bottle shops, we’re pretty damn spoiled with the fact that the brewery is a short 30 minute drive from San Diego, where we can buy bottles and fill growlers five days a week.

Alpine has extremely limited distribution outside of their own brewery and pub, I’ve heard there are a few shops in the LA area that occasionally get Alpine’s beer (legitimately from an actual distributor, there are many more shops around the state that buy beer at Alpine and then resell it, a process frowned upon by the brewery) but for the most part if you want to drink Alpine’s beers you have to be in San Diego (and maybe even drive up to Alpine). The fact that their beer is so good, and so hard to come by outside of our small corner of the country has caused quite a bit of demand amongst beer geeks out there. Demand that just cannot be filled by Alpine’s rather small brewery.

So when I learned that Alpine Beer Co.’s Pat and Shawn Mcilhenney were headed to Fort Collins to brew an Alpine style Double IPA in collaboration with New Belgium Brewing Company I was certainly excited for the beer itself, but recognized this might be a much bigger deal to those folks within New Belgium’s wide distribution area but outside of Southern California. A whole lot of people are about to be exposed to Alpine Beer Company, many probably for the first time. Thankfully Super India Pale Ale is superb beer and even though it wasn’t brewed in Alpine, CA it’s well deserving of having Alpine’s name attached to it.

I picked up a bottle of Super IPA at Bine and Vine (which I hadn’t been to in a month or so, I have to say it’s looking pretty nice in there) last night for $6.99, I think I saw them tweet that they’re now sold out but are expecting more next week. New Belgium brewed a lot of this beer, 1400 barrels according to one of Alpine’s past email newsletters, which they state is almost equal to Alpine Beer Co.’s entire annual production, but demand is expectantly high. It’s all over town, but may take a bit of searching to find, especially at some of the more popular beer spots.

Super IPA is everything you would expect from an Alpine IPA, big and hoppy. Without having drank the two side by side (so this may not be an accurate comparison) it reminded me a bit of a bigger version of Duet. Quite a bit of citrus and pine hop flavors supported by a malt backbone that doesn’t get in the way of the hops. It comes in at 9% ABV but it’s not overly sweet or too boozy. Super IPA is delicious, but I don’t know that it’s any better than other Alpine IPAs/Double IPAs (in fact my tastebuds are still loyal to Nelson). So while I hope to drink a few more of these while they’re around, once this one-off beer is gone I’ll go back to drinking Nelson, Duet and Pure Hoppiness and have no complaints. But for those beer drinkers that aren’t as lucky to be able to pick up beer’s from Alpine regularly, this is indeed a special treat.

And as a side note, I think this might be one of the coolest beer bottles I’ve ever bought. I don’t save too many bottles, but this one is a keeper.

I won’t be posting all events, and just because an event isn’t listed doesn’t mean it isn’t worth going to. I’ll just pick one or two a day. I try to keep the Events Calendar up to date, so check it for the full list of things going on around down. If you know of a beer event that isn’t listed send me an email, events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Instead of posting a weeks worth of events at once, I’ll be posting the weekend events on Wednesday night or Thursday and then posting on Sunday or Monday if there’s anything noteworthy going on Monday-Wednesday of a given week.

Thursday, Sept. 29th, 2011:

Getting a little self promotional here, my wife (San Diego CityBeat Arts and Culture editor Kinsee Morlan) and I have partnered up to put on an art show and beer tasting at Bottlecraft. From 7-10pm the artist Katie Scott will be on hand with plenty of her work showing. There will be three different flights available for purchase as well as all the rest of the great beer at Bottlecraft. More info here.

Grab your bike and head down to Golden Hill Park (technically part of Balboa Park but nowhere near where it was held last year) for New Belgium Brewing Co.’s Tour de Fat. The bike parade starts at 11am and other entertainment will run throughout the rest of the day.

Super Cru is New Belgium’s 20th Anniversary beer and a tribute to (or super version of?) Fat Tire. It’s an amazingly wonderful smelling beer. It’s a very lively beer with a wonderful pear smell, tart and fruity (as it is brewed with Asian Pear juice). Bready malts and a little bit of caramel or toffee come through in the first sips. There’s a spicy bite towards the end of the taste, possibly due to the Saison yeast used.

But as Super Cru warms it becomes more difficult to drink. The 10% ABV starts to become more apparent and the sweetness, both from the fruit juice and the large malt bill present themselves front and center. Super Cru is by no means a terrible beer, but it isn’t a great beer either. I picked this 22oz bottle up for $8 at BevMo which I feel was a pretty good price for what I got. I’d recommend drinking it on the cold side, split the bottle with a friend if possible or pour a small glass and keep the remainder in the fridge until you’re ready for more.

I don’t buy many six packs lately. I’ve fallen into the beer geek habit of not drinking too many “regular” beers. I tend to buy bombers and of seasonals and one-offs, and drink beer on draft, but it seems rare these days for me to pick up a six pack of any one beer. A few weeks ago I was having some friends over so I picked up a couple six packs, one of which was New Belgium’sMothership Wit, and organic Belgian-style wit.

With the passing this past weekend of Pierre Celis, the man many consider to have single handedly brought back the Belgian White style while at Hoegaarden in the 1960’s. With no Hoegaarden in the fridge (although many would say Hoegaarden just isn’t the same since the brewery was purchased by InBev) this American take on the style will have to do for a toast to Celis.

Mothership Wit is 4.8% ABV, 12 IBU and made using Organic Hallertau, organic pale malt, organic wheat, organic bitter orange peel, organic coriander, and organic lemon peel. Wheat beers in general, be it American Wheat beers, German Hefeweizen’s or Belgian Wit’s, typically aren’t my favorites, but lately I’ve had a few that I’ve really enjoyed, this being one of them.

Mothership Wit pours a cloudy yellow/gold with a big frothy head that disappeared after a few minutes. It’s pretty sweet smelling, I pick up some spice, which I assume is coriander, as well as citrus fruit.

The taste is similar to the smell. It has a tangy citrus flavor and some coriander spice which fades into a sweet finish. There’s a bitter but not unpleasant aftertaste that doesn’t seem like a hop bitterness, probably from the orange peel, coriander and lemon peel.

My biggest complaint with Mothership Wit is that it feels a bit thin and watery. I don’t have a lot of examples of other Wit’s to compare it to, so I’m not sure if this is on par with the style, although I assume it is. This is a good beer for warmer weather, nice and refreshing.

I usually make it a point to have a couple good beers every weekend, but for some reason this weekend seemed to be all about beer. Maybe it was the rain on Saturday, what else is there to do when it rains? Regardless of the reason, I drank some great beer this weekend.

Friday night I had dinner at KNB Wine Cellars and somehow managed to only have one beer. Their tap list is so good it was hard to decide on what to drink but I had Vrienden, the slightly sour and a little sweet (thanks to hibiscus flowers) New Belgium/Allagash collaboration. This wasn’t the first time I had Vrienden and I’m still undecided on it. The first time I had it out of a bottle I thought it was good but not great. I had it on draft about a month ago and really enjoyed it. This time it seemed sweeter than I remember, the fruity hibiscus flowers were very apparent. A good beer but I didn’t like it as much as I remembered.

Saturday I started the day off watching the SDSU/BYU game and opened my last bottle of Deschutes2009 The Abyss. It’s been reported that many of The Abyss bottles from 2009 were infected and had off smells and flavors which was the case with this bottle. (The last bottle I opened before this one was last summer and the off smell/flavor wasn’t nearly as prominent.) There was a strong Brett smell and some off flavors, it wasn’t terrible but didn’t taste right. I’ve heard some people say they really like these infected bottles, and others say they can’t stomach it at all and have to pour it out. I was able to drink about half the bottle but am glad I don’t have any more of these bottles sitting around.

A bit later in the day I went to The Linkery for their 6th anniversary where they had some nice beers on tap. I started off with Ballast Point’sSan Salvador Saison, which now is about five or six months old. I had a small taster of San Salvador at the Ballast Point 14th Anniversary Festival when it was fresh and it was one of my favorite beers of the day. If memory serves me it has changed a bit, but it still a great beer. It has a much stronger yeast characteristic that gives it a bit of a sweet flavor up front. There is still plenty of spice in there but the yeast is what stands out. I also had Black Market’sRye IPA on cask dry hopped with Cascade and Amarillo hops. This was only my second time having this GABF gold medal winning beer, plenty of citrus hops and a nice mouthfeel from the cask.

Later that night I ended up at Counterpoint where they had a keg of Lost Abbey’sRed Poppy on. This is one of my favorite sours but sadly it’s pretty rare. I heard they weren’t doing too many kegs of it this year, so far I’ve seen it at Eleven, Ritual Tavern and now Counterpoint. If you see this on tap I highly suggest it. Bottles have started showing up at some of the better liquor stores in town, but they surely won’t last long. I also tried a VictoryGolden Monkey, a strong Belgian-style golden ale, it was slightly sweet and fruity and had some serious alcohol heat to the first few sips but was overall a good beer.

Sunday I had to go for a bike ride to burn off all these beer calories, but that ride took me right past Pizza Port Ocean Beach where I stopped in for a few beers. Jolly Pumpkin’sMadrugada Obscura is a nice slightly tart and sour but still good and roasted stout. If only this is what the infected 2009 The Abyss had tasted like. I haven’t seen this on draft before, but I know some bottles showed up recently at some local liquor stores, I highly recommend it. It’s sour, but not too sour, so give it a chance if you like stouts and are on the fence about sours. And being a Pizza Port, I just had to try Nickel Bag, the double IPA brewed with help from O’Brien’s Pub’s Tom Nickel. This was so smooth and easy to drink (for being 10% ABV) it could be dangerous. There are a ton of hops in there, but it’s not overpoweringly bitter, it has some citrus and pine flavors from the hops and a nice malt backbone to balance things out.

And for the final beer of the weekend I cracked open a 2011 Stone Belgo Old Guardian Barleywine while watching the Oscar’s. I would have loved to do a side-by-side comparision for the Belgo and the regular, but wasn’t able to do that last night (I’m sure I’ll get another opportunity in the future). I really enjoyed the Belgo OG. The Belgian yeast made it fairly sweet, but not in an overpowering or cloying and syrupy kind of way, which took a lot of the alcohol heat off. At about $6/22oz this is a solid beer. I can’t wait to try it along side the original OG and probably put some of both versions away to age for a while.

I’ve been trying to be pretty good about putting up weekly summary posts of beer events going on around town, so as not to litter the blog with random one-off event postings all the time, but every once in a while there’s a beer event, or even just a single beer that I feel is worth a post of it’s own.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, Jan 19th 2011) The Linkery will be tapping a cask of New Belgium Brewing Co.’sShadow of Foeder. If you’re anything like me you’ve probably never heard of Shadow of Foeder. But if like me, New Belgium’s La Folie is one of your favorite beers, you won’t want to miss this. Shadow of Foeder is a black sour, a blend of La Folie and New Belgium’s 1554.

Looks to be a bit of a slow week. But just because their aren’t a ton of out-of-the-ordinary special events listed here, doesn’t mean there isn’t great craft beer on tap at local bars and on the shelves of local liquor stores. If you know of anything that isn’t on our events calendar, email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday, Jan 6:

New Belgium Brewing Co. and Allagash Brewing Co. recently teamed up to brew a new sour beer, the 8.5% ABV Vrienden. According to O’Brien’s Pub, Vrienden is Flemish for Friends and was brewed with endive and hibiscus and then soured with lacto bacillus and brettanomyces. And O’Brien’s Pub just so happens to be tapping a keg of Vrienden on Thursday. They’ll have a few other New Belgium Brewing Co. beers on tap and some New Belgium globe glasses for sale.

Friday, Jan 7:

While I couldn’t find any special beer events going on this Friday. That doesn’t mean they’re not happening. If you know of something email events@sandiegobeerblog.com. Otherwise, I’d bet that your local bar has some delicious on tap.

UPDATE: According to the Missoula, Montana based beer blog Grizzly Growler, this will be the largest selection of Big Sky beers ever in one place.

Sunday, Jan 9:

Some people say that Stone Brewing Co.’s10.10.10 Vertical Epic Ale tastes better on draft than it does in the bottle. I haven’t made my mind up for sure, but Stone will be doing growler fills of 10.10.10 VE this Sunday which makes it easy to do a comparison between draft and bottle at home — just be aware that this will leave you with 86oz of 10.10.10 VE. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad problem to have.

Monday, Jan 10:

Monday might be the busiest night of the week. I’ve noticed that Eleven seems to be doing fairly regular keep the glass nights on Monday’s. This week is Delirium Tremens, the glass and beer will set you back $6.50 (and don’t forget to throw an extra buck to your bartender) and and after that refills will run $4.50.

Or head on up to Escondido where Stone Brewing Co. is teaching about beer, Beer 101: Intro to Beer will teach you the basics of beer. And the beer list for the class looks might fine. Tickets are $25.

And as always, Toronado does $3 local pints from 6pm-Close on Monday nights.

San Diego Beer Week is a big, diverse, decentralized event, which makes it mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. There are events with incredibly rare beers, events where you get to take a glass home, events with cheap beer, events pairing beer and food, you name it and there’s probably a bar or brewery doing it this week. But in my opinion some of the best SDBW events are Blind Lady Ale House’s Brewmaster Series.

For the Brewmaster Series BLAH invites brewers in to talk about their beer to a small group, typically less than 30 people. Everyone gets a tasting flight of six 5oz beers and the brewer guides them through each beer, discussing how the beer was made and answering questions people have.

I’ve attended two of these Brewmaster Series type events, one with Patrick Rue of The Bruery a few months ago, and one this past weekend with Mark Jilg of Craftsman Brewing Co. At $25 they’re incredible deals, not only do you get to drink great beer but you get to hear about the beers from the people that make them. I can’t begin to describe how much I’ve learned at each of these events that I wouldn’t have had I just gone out and had a few beers. The flight alone typically costs $20 at the bar, so an extra $5 to listen to the brewer is quite a deal in my opinion.

Blind Lady Ale House has four Brewmaster Series tasting flights left during SDBW: